New Hope Christian Fellowship, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a chartered church of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Started by Pastor Wayne Cordeiro in 1996, New Hope has approximately 21,000 attendees each week with five locations on Oahu and more than 100 affiliate churches worldwide. New Hope International is the leadership training and church planting arm of New Hope.
History
Pastor Wayne Cordeiro and his wife Anna moved from Oregon to Hilo, Hawaii in 1983 and started a church in the Waiakea Villas area. It then moved to the Hilo Women's Club and then to the Hilo Boy's and Girl's Club. In 1990, the "Gathering Place" facility was built and the church grew to 2000. In September 1995, Cordeiro and Anna moved to Honolulu, Hawaii to start New Hope. From 1996 to 2012, the church met in the auditorium of Farrington High School in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu. Since 2013, the New Hope Ministry Center has been located at 290 Sand IslandAccess Road in Honolulu. Since its inception, New Hope has grown to over 124 churches in the Pacific Rim and beyond, including Las Vegas, Seattle, Simi Valley, Japan, Myanmar, and Australia. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin described New Hope as "a local personification of the nationwide phenomenon of mega-churches and the mushrooming of evangelical and pentecostal Christianity." According to Cordeiro, "God said to me, 'Build big people, not a big church.' New Hope Christian College, formerly Eugene Bible College, is affiliated with the church and is located in Eugene, Oregon.
From 1996 to 2012, New Hope partnered with Farrington High School by not only renting its auditorium for its weekend services, but also by helping maintain the campus. According to Farrington's Principal, the school was initially going to close its auditorium because it was run down and the school had no money to fix it. The church responded by installing air conditioning and a sound system, while volunteers painted the auditorium, gym and several classrooms. Volunteers also help perform custodial duties, such as clearing trash and mowing the lawns on campus. On Friday, November 23, 2012, Farrington's auditorium roof collapsed during a heavy rainstorm. The incident caused New Hope to relocate its services initially to Farrington's gymnasium for the remainder of 2012 and then to its present location at Sand Island in January 2013. In August 2013, three New Hope churches and two others were sued by a group alleging that the churches underpaid for the use of school facilities. The suit claims that the five churches collectively underpaid by $5.6 million, of which New Hope Oahu alone was responsible for $3.2 million over the course of six years.
Other information
listed New Hope as the 19th most innovative church in America in 2008. New Hope was also listed as the 20th most influential church in America and in 2007 won the Solomon Award for "Best Overall AV Project".
